The Shoe Industry In Dongguan Is Hard To Heal.

In Dongguan, China, many people walk around a discarded furniture factory, pointing to factories that once worked hard for hundreds of workers, where they used rough boards to make television cabinets and wardrobes to supply people in China and other emerging economies eager to become middle class.

The factory is moving to a new site two hours away from here. Because of rising costs and reduced orders, it is no longer viable here.

According to Mr Fang, up to 1/3 of furniture factories in Dongguan have been closed down, and many other manufacturers are struggling.

Mr. Fang, 46, said, "the economic slowdown is real."

Over the past 22 years, he has risen from a monthly wage of 50 yuan (400 yuan) to the position of production supervisor.

Dongguan was once a thriving manufacturing center, where recession is part of China's economic puzzle that global investors are trying to solve.

Although China has gradually pformed from the low-end manufacturing industry in Dongguan, the long downturn in the large domestic industrial sector is a serious threat to the country's already slow economy.

Although the government is trying to control the situation, there is still a risk that China's economic situation is actually worse than expected, which has disturbed the stock market around the world.

The latest signals from China have not provided much comfort, and the economic weakness has not shown any signs of abating.

On Tuesday, China posted a growth rate of only 6.8% in the fourth quarter of last year, the slowest pace of economic expansion since the abyss of financial crisis in 2009.

"When it comes to economy, politicians and business leaders talk about industrial innovation and upgrading," Fang said. "But I think it's just a slogan.

It's really hard to achieve. "

Dongguan is located in the core position of the Pearl River Delta in southern China.

For decades, this region has pushed China's export volume to the world, making everything from furniture to clothing and shoes.

Last year, China's exports declined for the first time since the financial crisis, which is only the second time since the opening of the world economy in the late 1970s.

China's position in the whole manufacturing sector is likely to be further weakened by the p Pacific Partnership.

The US led trade agreement will deepen relations between the United States and Asian countries such as Vietnam and Malaysia, but not China.

The economic downturn has created a thorny situation for the government.

Officials are encouraging the phasing out of low-end exports while promoting services and high-tech manufacturing.

Despite the rising trend of new and dynamic companies in China, the risk is that these companies are not developing fast enough to make up for the vacancies in the light manufacturing industry. Although the light manufacturing industry is shrinking, it is still the main employer in the whole country.

Some traditional manufacturer pairs

The response is to move factories to the mainland or overseas, because the cost of these far away places is usually relatively low.

Other manufacturers are trying to build their own brand products in the domestic market to reduce dependence on export orders.

Zhang Lin, 43, is working hard to adapt to this pformation.

25 years ago, Mr. Zhang left his hometown in the west of Sichuan province.

He worked as a shoe factory and later became a supervisor. He was responsible for supervising about 7000 production line workers in a Taiwan funded factory here.

According to the Dongguan Footwear Association's estimate, before the financial crisis, the sports shoes produced by Dongguan factories accounted for about 25% of the global sales of sports shoes.

But the cost is also rising.

It has brought heavy pressure.

Mr. Zhang's Taiwanese funded factory collapsed in 2012.

He worked with several partners to build a factory to produce shoes and leather boots for K-Swiss and Durango (Durango).

Today, Mr. Zhang's factory employs about 700 workers.

The cost is on the rise, and the demand for overseas customers is also declining. Last year, the number of shoes on the company orders decreased by about 1 million 200 thousand pairs, compared with that in 2014, a decrease of about 15%.

"Traditional industries are feeling this unfortunate pain," said Gao Luyi Louis Kuijs, head of Asian Economics at Oxford Economics.

But he added that the pition from low-end labour intensive manufacturing to "an inevitable part of the ongoing structural changes in the economy".